Institute Experiments
by MaximumRide101
Summary: Discontinued. Possibly up for re-write.
1. Terrible Past

**A/N: This is my first fanfiction, but flames are okay. Like the title shows, I wrote this for Flame-Taw's challenge. It's about the kids that were freed from the Institute. Tyler isn't one of these kids - he'll explain in the next chapter. Also, check out Flame-Taw's challenge if you don't know what I'm talking about.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Maximum Ride stuff, but I do own Sammy, Andy, Ride, Tie, Rocket, Canter, Whisk, and Tyler. You need my permission to use them.**

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A few people gave me odd glances as I walked down the sidewalk. I probably attracted attention, since I was obviously a homeless thirteen-year-old wandering the streets of New York, looking half starved, dirty, and pale. But there was nothing I could very well change, since our home didn't have running water, and we had just run out of money. 

I lingered outside of AFO Schmidt, staring through the window like a kid who hadn't seen a toy in her life time. Actually, before two months ago, I didn't even know the meaning of the word "toy." So, I guess that description is pretty accurate.

Through the window, I saw the life-sized giraffe that Rocket wanted, but it was way too expensive and we didn't have the money or the room. If he was there, he'd be bugging me to get it, even though he knew the only way I could would be to steal it, and a stuffed giraffe leaving the shop is kind of…conspicuous.

With a sigh I turned away from the toy shop and started walking again. My eyes scraped the ground, hoping to find maybe a forgotten dollar bill in the gutter, or even a lone quarter. Any money at all would be fabulous – I would have to steal otherwise. Just in case, though, I had my large backpack on my back. It smelled strongly of cat and was even covered in golden cat fur.

One of the outdoor stands was suddenly missing a bag of honey smoked peanuts after I passed when the guy's back was turned. I snacked on my food while I tried to find some way to pay for enough food to feed seven kids, including myself. Or, six kids and a cat. There we go. I was about to give up when…bingo! Hello, my friend fifty dollar bill. The money was flapping in the gutter and was kind of damp, but it could still be used. I stuffed the money in my pocket. No one would mind a girl without a penny to her name taking some money she found lying in the street.

With my meager about of money - $51.82 total, since I found some extra change on the ground as well – I went to the cheapest place I could in order to get food. It wouldn't be much, but it would be enough to last us a day and hopefully get some money in that time.

I put the food I had just bought in my backpack, before glancing at a large clock in the store. I swore under my breath. It was three – I was supposed to meet Ride half an hour ago in Central Park. No doubt he was still waiting for me. After zipping up my pack to keep the food in, I ran down the street. My shoes threatened to come apart then and there – they had been doing that for a while now – but miraculously stayed in one piece. Fifteen minutes later I skidded into Central Park, panting.

"What took you so long?" Ride dropped from a tree, staring me in the eye. Even though he was ten, so three years younger than me, he was taller than me. Dang, he was almost six feet tall! Lucky sap.

"I was getting food," I said. "I didn't have money." Ride snorted and pushed three hundred dollars into my hand. I stared at it in awe. How did this twerp manage to get so much money? In one day!

"What would you do without me?" he asked.

"Where'd you get this?" I stuffed the money in my pocket. Ride glanced around to make sure no one was listening. He looked sheepish. Even once he was sure that no one was around, he wouldn't say anything. He scuffed the ground with his shoe. "Ride…" I said sternly.

"I, uh, stole it," he muttered. He was avoiding eye contact. "I ran past some guy, and he didn't notice me, uh, go by and take it." I smacked my forehead and Ride grinned sheepishly. Great…I had a ten-year-old, thieving, super speed freak on my hands. How much could one thirteen-year-old bird kid manage?

"Ride, that is so stupid! There are other ways to get money," I snapped.

"How'd you manage to get enough for food?" he shot back.

"There was a fifty lying in a gutter – all you have to do is look. Or you could even get a job, Ride! You look the oldest out of all of us." Ride's hand shot to his hair, feeling the feathers that stuck out randomly. "No one would notice the feathers. Other kids are always doing odd things to their hair and stuff." I dismissed it with a wave of my hand.

Ride sighed and nodded, clearly defeated. It took a lot to get that kid to change his way of thinking, and chewing him out was pretty much the only way. Or at least, it was the only way I knew of at the moment.

"Come on, let's get back to the others," I sighed. The two of us again made sure we were in a secluded part of the park before spreading our wings. Mine were thirteen feet long, and a soft grey with white specks near the bottom. Ride's were almost fifteen feet and a dull red, like rust. He had brown streaks on random feathers.

The two of us had a running takeoff, since takeoffs going straight up were difficult. Hopefully no one saw us taking off from the park, otherwise we'd be all over the news, and my warnings to the others would be stupid if I broke them myself. Ride still looked sheepish and was avoiding my eyes.

"Going down," I announced a few minutes later. Ride glanced down at the ground and grimaced. Our "house" was below us, its rotting roof having two kid-sized holes in the top where Ride and I constantly broke through. There was a little bit of smoke coming from one hole. The two of us dived down into the other one, dropping onto the ground twenty feet below. I had to flare my wings to prevent myself from going splat. Ride did the same next to me.

"I smell food." A cat got up from next to the fire and walked over to me, tail flicking. This was another one I had to look after: Whisk. It was short for 'whisker.' Whisk had been a normal cat, but was mixed with human DNA. Now he had human eyes, a voice box, and human fingers under his claws.

"Yeah, you do." I took off the backpack, dropping it next to the fire. Ride sat down and leaned back against the wall. "How'd it go, Ash? Any troubles with these four?" I directed my question at the one other girl out of the seven of us. She was part cat, and actually looked cat-ish. She had yellow eyes with slits for pupils, her fingernails came to sharp points for claws, and she had a tail and cat ears. She was my second-in-command, and was Ride's twin sister. Even though she actually looked like a ten-year-old.

"They were kind of rowdy," Ash said. "Canter and Tie were playing tag and kept fighting, Rocket was complaining about food, and Whisk wouldn't shut up."

"So an average day?" Ash laughed and nodded, helping me hand out the food to the boys. Rocket was settled next to me, staring at the food.

"Did you get me a toy?" He asked that every day, and I gave him a What do you think? look. His face fell. Rocket was four, so I could understand him wanting a toy all the time. He was part snake and frankly, the most noticeable out of all of us. His skin was gone, instead replaced with sickly green scales. His eyes were like Ash's, and he had a forked tongue.

"We don't have enough money for a toy," Tie pointed out with his usual tack. He was seven, and also the snidest out of everyone here. He had a comeback for anything, even if it wasn't anything insulting. Tie was part dog and, like me, didn't show off his mutations. Unless he morphed, like the Erasers.

Last was Canter. He was asleep, curled up in a tight ball with a ratty blanket over him, probably by Andy. He was part ferret. Canter was always jumpy and wanting to run. He also had a higher body temperature, so he needed to be warmer than everyone else. That's why we always kept a fire going and he got the blankets. Canter was also mute, and had come up with his own version of Morse code. He was pretty smart, for an eight-year-old.

The seven of us filled our faces with our meager amount of food I'd allowed everyone. We had enough for dinner tonight, but then I'd have to use the money that Ride had…acquired. Little bugger.

Once they were done eating Tie and Rocket started to goof off inside of our bombed-out shell of a home. Whisk was sitting up on a crate, his tail swishing as he watched. I saw his nose twitching for a minute before he joined in the boys' game. Ride was making sure no one got hurt.

Canter whimpered in his sleep and burrowed his head under a blanket. I saw him shivering and put the last one, a fluffy fleece blanket with – get this – ferret pictures on it, over his body. Canter's shuddering slowed and he started breathing calmly again.

"Are we ever going to leave this place? I don't know about you, Sammy, but I'm getting fed-up with having to sleep in this hellhole. I feel like it's going to fall on our heads any night now," Ash said.

"I know – I feel the same way. Ride and I probably aren't helping." I pointed to the two holes in the ceiling and Ash laughed.

"No, not so much." I smiled. Ash was cool, and also a pretty good kid to talk to. The boys got kind of dull after a bit. For a little bit there was just the sound of the fire crackling and the two kids playing, as well as the cat.

Outside, I heard the normal hubbub of New York. Until it suddenly fell silent for a moment, before picking up volume. I stiffened and Ash was tense, too. Okay, so I wasn't hearing things. Canter sat up quickly, and I got the kids' attention and got them to be completely silent. They stared at me, looking scared. Outside the run-down door, I heard barking and a dog clawing at the rotten wood.

"They're in there," I heard a smooth, angelic voice of an Eraser say. Oh, no. I caught Ride's eye and pointed at the ceiling. He looked up, then down at the others, biting his lip. He shook his head, and pointed to the door, before shrugging. I growled and made an "I don't care" motion. So what if they saw us? They couldn't do anything. Ride made a finger gun and pointed it at him pretending to shoot it and die. Oh, right. I had forgotten about the guns.

Again I looked at the ceiling. Ash shook my shoulder and mouthed one word: "helicopter." I gulped, looking between the door and the ceiling. I could hear it now. Ride had just gone pale, and Whisk was hiding in the backpack. Canter was looking ready to bolt, while Tie and Rocket were shaking.

The dog barked again and a claw came through the wood. With my quick thinking, I stood and went over to the crates in the corner Whisk had been on. They were full of horse junk – saddles and such – so were kind of heavy. Also, the door opened inward. I motioned Ash and Ride over to help me move the boxes in front of the door. The younger four watched us barricade the door.

"Get them out!" I heard an Eraser snarl. Oh, man, this was bad. We all looked over at Tie. He could normally get us all out of trouble like this, since he was pretty much one of them, but Tie paled and shook his head quickly. I put my hands together in a pleading motion, and winced when a dog managed to get his nose inside. Canter squeaked and jumped. "I heard them!" Uh-oh.

"Ride – U and A. Now. We'll deal with the chopper," I said tightly, motioning to myself, Tie, Ash, and Canter. Ride looked troubled but agreed. He slung the backpack on his back and picked up Rocket. He shot through the ceiling and I heard gunshots.

"Hurry!" Ash snapped. I picked the three of them up off the ground and shot into the sky as well. It's a good thing I had super strength, otherwise I would have fallen again. Above was a chopper with Erasers. Below were also Erasers with dogs. The people on the streets had run off seeing these morphed monsters. There was one slight problem – Ride, Rocket, and Whisk had been captured in those thirty second it took for me to get up here, and were being held captive on the chopper. That sucked.

"Tie, you're up. You better do something or those guys are dead," I hissed. Canter was hanging on around my neck, and I had Ash in one arm. Tie was in my other arm, morphing to Eraser. "Up or down?"

"Down," he said with a gravely Eraser voice. Knowing he wouldn't get hurt, I dropped him to the ground to battle it out there. He would to fine against those five thugs and the dogs. I hoped.

"You two – up. I'm going to try a sneak attack," I hissed. There were guns pointed at me from the chopper. "On three." Ash looked horrified and Canter was shivering again. "One…two…three." I tossed them up onto the chopper. Ash landed on one and it clubbed itself on the head with its gun. That was easy. Canter managed to take out two more, since they ran into each other trying to get to him and fell off. Ride growled and threw one over his shoulder, and it also fell off. But you know, that wasn't one of my best plans.

After a couple minutes, I was the last one free. I swore to myself and put a hand in my sweatshirt pocket, feeling the small bombs I'd confiscated from Tie. I was really contemplating throwing them, but I would probably kill my friends.

The three Erasers that had fallen out of the chopper suddenly came up from the ground…on wings of their own! "Aw, come on! Cut us a break now and again!" I cried in anguish. I glanced at my friends sadly. "Sorry, guys. I'm coming to get you back." With that parting note, I started to zoom off. Rocket yelled my name, and I felt tears gathering. I wiped my eyes and looked back. The Erasers were following. There were now four for some reason.

And the race was on.

I zipped down into the city, the idiots following me. A building popped up and I almost crashed – I took a sharp left and came within an inch of hitting the building. One Eraser wasn't so lucky and hit the brick wall. Cool! But I still had three on my tail.

People gawked up at us from the ground, and I saw flashes from a camera, but now I had more pressing matters to attend to. Like not getting captured myself so that I could free my friends who I had so foolishly put into danger. Even though I was breaking every rule I had laid down.

Ahead of me loomed a tall building. I put on a bit more speed, heading right for it. I would have to time it right so that I didn't kill myself. At the last minute, I pulled up, my toes brushing the building. This was too tempting an opportunity to miss. I put my feet on the wall and started running up, my wings keeping me from falling. That was cool!

The Erasers were actually gaining, and I almost fell backwards when I reached the roof. The Erasers grinned wolfishly when they landed on top with me. If I weren't running for my life, I'd stand here and look out towards the ocean about three miles away. But if I did that, I would have to have all six of my friends by my side.

"No where to run, birdie. Just come with us and your friends and you won't get hurt," one tried coaxing. I snorted, backing up. And backing right up into a wall. Why the heck did someone put walls up on roofs? Okay, so they needed someway to get up here, but haven't they heard of trapdoors? Not these dinky little things!

The lead Eraser, who actually looked more wolfish than the others, drew a gun and pointed it at my head. I closed my eyes tight, waiting for the inevitable shot. But it never came. I heard a grunt of pain and a gasp. Naturally curious, I opened my eyes….

…and saw that all three of the wolf guys were out for the count. I stared at them in shock, then my gaze slowly went up and met that of another boy. He was closer to my age than Ride and was about my height, too. Not towering over me like the little twerp Ride was. This kid had messy brown hair that fell in his face and his eyes looked almost black. He, like me, looked like a homeless teenager that scrounged for food on some occasions.

"Thanks," I said breathlessly. The kid smiled.

"Don't mention it. I've wanted to do that for a while. By the way, the name's Tyler," the kid said, offering his hand out to shake. I took it.

"Sammy," I introduced myself. "How did you know these guys?" Tyler grinned and I gasped – he had spread a beautiful pair of silver wings from his back, then folded them up again. "You're…you're like me." Okay, that topped the list of weird things going on today.

"Yeah. And I want to help you, Sammy. Help you get the others back. I was watching the whole thing." I blushed and turned my head away so that he couldn't see. "I think you might need some help getting back in the Institute."

"Probably. And you're willing to?" I asked skeptically. Tyler nodded. "Okay… I guess I could use the help." Tyler gave a brief grin, then jumped off the building, spreading his wings after falling ten stories. I followed suit, waiting until I was five floors from the ground before taking off. Again people stared, but I didn't care. I was off to get my family back!

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**A/N: First chapter done! Next one, you learn some stuff about Tyler.**

**Also, I needed to ask people to help out my friends, Max and Kat (Flame-Taw and maximum-ride-004). They told me that they can't think of anything else for their made-up stories, and both of them will be gone for a little while. Apparently I missed doing something fun, and they got grounded. Oh, well, I guess next time. Anyway, I think they'd appreciate help with their stories if you don't mind. PM them if you want to help, please.**

**- Zach**


	2. Major Understatement

**A/N: Chapter two! Thanks to duudezilla and stargazer101 for reviewing. I appreciate it. Oh, and in the last chapter I said my friend's username was maximum-ride-004. It's 003, not 4. Thought I should point that out. Anyway, on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Maximum Ride stuff, but I do own Sammy, Andy, Ride, Tie, Rocket, Canter, Whisk, and Tyler. You need my permission to use them.**

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"So...did you get freed from the Institute, too?" I asked conversationally as we coasted around high above the city. We were trying to find the dreaded building again and devise a plan. Just storming the place wouldn't work, so we had to have something better if we were going to get the kids free. 

Tyler glanced at me for a second, then back at where he was going so that he didn't hit something. Like a cloud. There was nothing else up here to hit! Except a plane or a bird, but we hadn't seen either for a few minutes after the incident with the near-plane-crash. "No," he answered briefly. I just stared at him, hoping for more. "No, I wasn't. I'm from this place in Washington DC." I stared at him more, but this time out of shock. "Let's land and I'll explain."

We landed up on another tall building where we wouldn't be discovered and folded our wings in. We settled down by that stairwell building thing so that the wind up here wouldn't bother us. "Okay, well, I had a family before I got these wings. I had parents and three siblings - two sisters and a brother. My dad convinced me to come with him to the lab when I was five. He gave me bird DNA and I got wings." Tyler paused and I waited patiently for him to continue.

"Dad told me that I could help him. I was five, I didn't know any better. So I agreed, and became like a pet, like those Erasers that he had following him all the time, waiting for orders. I was just a lapdog. By the time I turned eight, four years ago, I had gotten it in my head that my dad was just using me. He didn't love me as his son anymore, since I was just a freak. A freak meant to do what I was told like a good little pet." Tyler growled and punched the roof. His knuckles instantly swelled and I could see he had torn the skin on them.

"Two years ago, Dad trusted me enough to go out of the lab and do a recon mission for some escaped experiments. I was to tag along with five Erasers who had to walk. After the first day, I had noticed that the wolfs didn't even notice me with them, and used that as my escape plan. I had flown away during the night, going around the country after that. Everywhere I went I didn't fit in." He sighed. "But then the Erasers I had been with found me, in Virginia.

"They tried to bring me back to the lab, back to my freak of a dad. I defeated most of them, but one managed to get away at the end. I think that was the lead Eraser that was about to shoot you. Anyway, I followed him for a little while, hoping to get a chance to take him down and help myself get away. And then I found you seven. I followed the Erasers trailing you, and you know the rest." Man, that kid had a more troubled past than me. "What about you at those others that you were with?"

"First off, their names are Ash, Ride, Tie, Canter, Rocket, and Whisk. Second, we were made in the lab here in New York, the Institute we're looking for. A couple years ago six bird kids broke us out and we've been living on our own since. Not much to add." I was never really good at telling stories, unless it was some lie that needed telling. If so, either me or Tie were the kids to tell it.

Tyler simply nodded and stared out over the edge. I looked out across the city, too, feeling as big as an ant in comparisson. I mean, there must have been about a thousand buildings that could tower over me here, or more. I was just one insiginficant girl with bird wings that was trying to fit in in this huge city. It would make anyone feel small.

Also, how were we supposed to figure out which building was the Institute? Any of these shiny, tall, impressive buildings could be the one. The seven of us had only seen the room where we were kept, and the sewers underneath the building. We hadn't seen the outside of it before. It's not like the whitecoats were thinking, "We need to let the experiments see this building in case they run away and want to return to us like good little experiments should." Nah, they were more thinking along the lines of, "We need to keep these experiments locked away, so that they can't escape and no one can see them and destroy us." Yeah, more the second one.

Tyler waved his hand in front of my face and I was brought out of my reverie with a snap. He looked amused and I tried to avoid eye contact. Man...it's just like Ride was doing earlier today. Before I had gotten them all captured. I groaned and put my head in my hands, shaking my head angrily. It took all my self control not to leap off the building with my wings tucked in. If I died, who was left to save the kids? Tyler didn't even know what the inside of the Institute looked like!

"It'll be okay. We'll find them," he said, strangely calm. I was screaming inside my head, mainly at myself, and here he was promising me everything was okay! A kid younger than me by a year was promising me things. Despite myself, I chuckled. "Think we could look up this Institute somewhere? A library?" he asked. Oh, yeah. I hadn't thought of that!

"Good idea. Let's go." We went through the little roof building and down to the ground floor. People looked at us like we were crazy, or like they were thinking, "How'd those kids get up there," since it was an office building. At least, I think it was, since everyone was dressed nicely in suits and stuff. Bleh.

For about two hours we wandered New York, trying to find a library. Who would have thought it would have taken that long to find one stinking building? Anyway, enough of my angry rants. We still found the building and, of course, went in. "Do you have computers we could use here?" Tyler asked the person at the main counter. I was looking at everyone suspiciously, expecting them to turn into furry wolf freaks, but no one was growing fur or muzzles, so I relaxed a little bit. Emphasis on little.

"Yes - they're upstairs. You have to sign in, but they're free," the man said politely. "Is it for a school project?"

"Yeah," I answered, and the man smiled and pointed us to the stairs. Once we were out of range, I asked, "School project? What do kids do at school that needs projects?" Tyler laughed.

"It's just research for certain classes," he said. Oh...that made sense. And made me feel incredibly stupid at the same time! Oh, well, I'd worry about my ignorance later. Right now, I was worried about the Institute. Upstairs it was pretty much just a computer room. There was a sign-in sheet that a woman pushed towards me, also smiling. Creepy. I signed "Sam Jacobs". Okay, so I made up my last name - sue me. Tyler also signed in, no doubt with his real name, then we were on the computers for our search.

"So...what's this institute's whole name? There are hundreds on institutes in New York," Tyler asked me from the monitor to my left. The kid to my right was playing some alien-shooting game and didn't seem to notice that we were there.

"The Institute for Higher Living," I replied quickly. Tyler raised an eyebrow and typed that in his search. I had already added it and was going through a lot of junk, until I reached a link that said the Institute's name, all in bold. "Tyler - half way down the third search page," I instructed. I heard him clicking and didn't bother to look over at him. Hesitantly, we clicked it at the same time.

The page came up and showed a map of how to get there. It didn't give any information about the Institute, nothing like that, but it did give a map. It also gave a "you are here" star to help anyone who was new to the wonderful world of technology. Congrats to you if you figured out that means me! I printed out the page, and Tyler seemed about to do the same thing. He stopped beforehand, though, since we didn't need two maps.

"That was way too easy," he commented when we left the library, the map firmly in my hand. And by "left the library" I mean "flew off from the roof against the librarians' protests of going up there." Either way, we were moving away from the library and towards the Institute. Anyway, I agreed with Tyler. It's odd, to find a map showing the way to a top-secret genetics lab that was breaking at least one law by experimenting on children.

"Could it be a trap?" I questioned nervously. I could just imagine the whitecoats leading us to some weird building where we would get captured and brought to the Institute with the kids. Tyler seemed to be mulling it over as well and hadn't heard my question. He took the map from my hands without so much as a "please" and looked it over. He bit his lip, thinking hard, apparently. He looked down at the ground then at the printed paper again.

"We'll find out in a minute if it is or not," he answered. Okay, so he hadn't been totally oblivious to my question, but still, he had been off in la-la land. He pointed to the ground, where the map said the Institute should be. I was expecting to see a yellow star painted on the roof, since that's what it had on the map, but it looked like any other building. Okay, it was shorter, only about three stories high, and didn't look all that menacing. Other than the male models standing on the roof with shotguns and sniper rifles.

"That's a bit of a problem," I pointed out, motioning to the gun-weilding Erasers. Tyler laughed.

"Not if you know how to be inconspicuous. Okay...so, fly a block away, land in an alley, and we'll walk. Easy peasy." Right...they were expecting us - or at least me - to come from the air, not the ground. I nodded and took off, probably only looking like a large bird of prey from my vantage point, and then dived down a block away. Tyler landed next to me and we closed our wings. A young boy that looked like an orphan, like us, was in the alley staring at us.

I stepped towards him, since I didn't trust Tyler with little kids. "Promise you won't tell anyone, okay?" I said kindly, handing the little boy a fifty. He looked at the money in surprise, and offered it back to me. "No, you need it more than I do." I closed his small hand around it and I saw tears forming in the kid's eyes. He ran off, looking much happier than five seconds ago.

"So you bribe a kid," Tyler said, shaking his head. I whacked him upside the head and he shut up. We walked towards the Institute. Across the street from it, I threw out my arm to stop Tyler. He looked around me and I heard him growl deep in his throat. There were Erasers outside of the building, too, guarding the door. This was going to be harder than I thought.

"Tyler - plan?" I asked hopefully. Yeah, I know I was supposed to be the leader, but right now I was feeling like a little ten-year-old again, being tested on in that building, down under the ground. Wait...under the ground! That's it! "Never mind." I had interrupted his thought, and he closed his mouth again, looking annoyed. "Sewer." I pointed at a sewer grate in our little alleyway, and Tyler wrinkled his nose at it. "Oh, come on! Max and the flock came in through the sewer to save us - we could do the same thing!"

"I guess... But wouldn't storming the place and knocking those guys out be more sensible?" he asked, almost pleading. I snorted.

"Only if you want to be filled with lead," I retorted, moving the sewer grate from the floor. It squeaked and a few people glanced in our direction, but then kept walking as if they saw kids go into the sewers everyday. Then again, this was New York, so who knew? I went first, dropping down into the yuck below. I heard the squeaking of rats. Tyler dropped down next to me, closing the grate at the same time. He glanced at the rats and smirked, crouching. I was trying not to shriek.

Oddly enough, Tyler made a few squeaking noises, and the rats actually answered him. After a moment of almost silent squeaking, he stood, the rats still right there, but moving to be behind him. "They're going to help find the entrance - they know these sewers. It's their home," he explained, motioning to where the sewer went. It went to the left of where we were headed, so maybe help was good. Even if it came from rats.

Tyler and his rat friends led the way, all of them occasionally squeaking from time to time. Tyler led me around many bends and turns until we came to an almost hidden door. The rats squealed ecstatically and Tyler squeaked a response, before they scurried away. Now that, too, was a weird sight that went to the top five for the day. Tyler tried the knob, but it was locked.

"Move," I said with my usual kindness, pushing him out of the way. Tyler seemed ready to protest, but thought better of it and closed his mouth. Wow, boys could learn. I grabbed the doorknob and pulled it straight from the door, throwing it into the greenish water below. I opened the door, and I creaked. I froze for a second, but when no one was alerted to our presence, I started to decend a staircase that was right inside the door, Stupid following right behind.

The stairs seemed to last forever, and we were in the complete darkness. At the end of the stairs I stumbled and ran smack-dab into a wall. This was not my day. I felt around until my hand found the doorknob. I turned it, not wanting to kill this door unless I had to, and found that it opened. We found ourselves in a large computer room - with twenty Erasers training guns on us. There were five slobbering mean dogs that Tyler had a brief talking to in dog language. They lay down on the ground, panting and looking much calmer.

"You two - don't move or else you die," one snarled. I smirked, in the face of death.

"No duh - you wouldn't club us down with your guns or anything, since you have them." Tyler turned a laugh into a cough with ease. I felt smart...untill I actually was clubbed in the head with the butt of a gun. My world went black.

I woke up not all that much longer, I think. Only there was something different...I was in a hosptital room. Lying on a metal, operation bed. I wasn't strapped to it, and felt woozy. I sat up, holding my head as my sight went all fuzzy for a second from light-headedness. I saw Tyler stirring on another bed. There was a one-way window thing on one wall, no doubt where whitecoats were watching us. I slid off of the metal bed and went straight for the door. It was locked, and not even I could get it open - there wasn't a doorknob or any leverage for me to grab.

"Crap," Tyler muttered. That summed it up quiet nicely. "Any way out?" I shook my head.

"There's the window, but no doubt there are _stupid snooping whitecoats behind it!_" I emphasized the last five words, hoping that they could hear me quiet clearly on the other end. "And then there's the door, which is locked." Tyler sighed and swung his legs over the bed. And that's when I noticed two things - one, the monitors on one wall showing the rooms where my friends were being held, probably to torture me. And two, the gas vents in the walls. "Shit." That also summed it up, and was a massive understatement at the same time. You can't get much better than that!

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**A/N: Chapter two will come tomorrow. I feel proud of myself - two long, three thousand word chapters in one day. I'm on a roll. Also, don't forget about my request for Max and Kat in the last paragraph, and the fact that Kat's username is maximum-ride-003, not 004. Anyway, hope you liked it!**

**- Zach**


	3. Dead Birdies

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews, guys! It helps me write faster. And here's chapter three!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Maximum Ride stuff, but I do own Sammy, Andy, Ride, Tie, Rocket, Canter, Whisk, and Tyler. You need my permission to use them.**

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Tyler and I sat there in silence for a little while. I was trying to ignore the sounds coming from the monitors, but it was hard. Every time I looked over there I saw my friends, upset and scared. Whisk was curled into a ball, his back to the camera, and I could hear him whimpering. Tie was swearing profusely. He had probably picked that up from me. Ash smacked him on the back of the head and told him to shut up. I glanced at Canter's screen - he was sitting there, mouthing things to himself. I saw his tear-stained face turn towards the camera, as if he knew we were watching. Ride was making some very rude gestures to his own one-way window thing, and Rocket, normally a bundle of energy, was sitting against a wall, looking defeated. 

Tyler was looking sourly at the window now and again and shouted out random words from time to time. He seemed to be losing it. I just sat on my metal bed, my head in my hands, trying hard to not look at the monitors, which was an almost impossible task. After a while, out of pity and sheer boredom, I looked back to check on my friends. None of them were in their rooms anymore. I glared at the screens, as if that would make the whitecoats bring them back, but of course nothing happened. Except for a whitecoat entering our room.

"You two," he said sharply and I turned to look at him quickly. Tyler jumped and glared at him. "It's been decided that you two will be exterminated. You," here he motioned at me, "have major leadership flaws, as well as a mentality flaw." I snorted and crossed my arms defiantly. I wan't mental! Unless talking to yourself sometimes made that true, but I'd only done that three times. "And you. You are just a disobedient mistake." Tyler jumped off his bed and seemed ready to punch the guy's lights out. I wouldn't have minded. But the Erasers that the whitecoat suddenly motioned in would.

"Bring them to the prepared room," he ordered. I didn't fight the Erasers - there wouldn't have been a point. If we had gotten out of their grip, there would be fifty more coming for us, and we would have to get the kids, while trying not to get "exterminated." That's just too much stress on one teenager for a while.

Tyler and I were led into a large, arena-like room, even further underground than that computer room we had first seen. They locked us in the large room, and I stood against the wall, tense, waiting to see what horrible monstrosity they would send to kill the two of us. Out of reflex, I looked around. I wasn't expecting to see escape routes or anything, but I actually did - a window, way up high on the wall, that made a rectangle of light in the middle of the floor. But we couldn't leave just yet - who knew what the whitecoats would do to the others?

During my quick look around, I noticed something else. Another observation window, up near the actual window. Using my hawk vision, I looked between the whitecoats standing there, clipboards in hand, probably making sure we would die. My eyes landed on my terrified friends, probably brought there just to be tortured with my death. If that death even occured. Personally, I hoped it didn't. Mainly because I liked my life, mainly the past few years of it - not so much the first ten. Also, being the unselfish recombiant that I am, I didn't want to have the kids watch me die. Would that be a terrible goodbye!

I was startled out of my thoughts by the sound of a door opening on the far end of the room. Next to me, I felt Tyler stiffen, and I gulped. Coming through the door were about fifty Erasers, plus about fifty of something else I hadn't seen before. They were like big cats, kind of like Whisk, only they looked like they were morphed like the Erasers. I knew this since they were walking upright and didn't look fully cat-ish. Weird.

"This is bad," I muttered. I glanced up at the whitecoats, almost pleading, but they payed no attention to me. "Tyler - you try and fight down here, and I fight from the air. Deal?" Tyler nodded dumbly, his face pale. I didn't blame the kid. We were about to get our mutated butts kicked! With my hearing, I heard Ash cry out from above, before I saw an Eraser cover her mouth with a furry mitt.

As suddenly as the door had opened, I started the fight to the death. I spread my wings and took to the air, hoping that only the Erasers could fly and the cat things couldn't. Apparently my hope proved true. The cat things started to prowl around Tyler while the Erasers came after me. Yeah, that was a fair match for both of us! One on fifty. So fair. Couldn't the whitecoats have given us a gun or something to help us out? Oh, yeah, but we were supposed to be dying, not doing the killing.

Like a rocket I shot up and almost hit my head on the ceiling. My friends were staring up at me, about fifteen feet above them, while the whitecoats didn't know who to look at - Tyler, who was kicking some serious butt but also getting walloped himself, or me. The Erasers caught up to me quicker than I anticipated. Two hit their heads on the ceiling and dropped about twenty feet. "I am not going to be a dead bird. Not today," I snarled, kicking out at the closest Eraser. I hit him full in the face, and got clawed down my arm for my troubles. I sucked in a hissing breath and managed an arial round-house kick. That was cool...I didn't know I could do that.

Below, Tyler was getting overwhelmed with cat things, and I was already starting to up here. _Please don't let me die at the hands of these monsters. Not in front of the kids, _I begged silently in my head. Hopefully Tie didn't pick up on my thoughts, that creepy little mind-reader. I was brought back to the present with a punch in my gut. My breath left me in a _whoosh_ and I dropped a few feet before managing to start flapping again. I was level with the viewing window. The younger four had their eyes tightly closed, while Ash and Ride were watching, horrified. The whitecoats looked gleeful.

I managed to punch and kick five Erasers down to the ground, where they landed in a heap. Tyler had done twice the damage down on the ground. With another well-aimed punch, my arm brushed against something in my pocket. Bombs...bingo! "Tyler, get up here!" I shouted, ducking before I was decapitated. Tyler zipped up quickly, one of his wings getting torn by a cat thing on the ground. They were prowling under us, waiting for one of us to drop low enough to get killed quickly. "Handle these guys, now," I said breathlessly, and I quickly delivered and upper-cut to one Eraser's jaw. I heard a crack of breaking bones.

Ride looked at me worriedly, probably wondering if this was another suicidal plan or what. Hopefully it would be a homicidal plan, if it worked properly. I dropped beneath Tyler and his new fight, and the cat things looked at me, almost wishing I would drop another two feet so that they could reach me. I carefully stayed at that height and pulled the bag of bombs from my pocket. I started one and let it drop. The cat things took no interest in the falling, all-destroying messes of wires, only having eyes for me. I dropped two more and then zoomed upwards, snagging the collar of Tyler's shirt on the way up. The Erasers looked around stupidly, as if wondering where their prey had gone.

"Five...four...three...two...one," I muttered, and then... _BOOM! Boom BOOM!_ The bombs went off. I yelled out as the heat and shrapnel of them managed to hit Tyler and I. Most of the Erasers were down, and all the cat things were dead. I was starting to have tunnel vision. The last remaining Erasers actually ran away from us, and I could see the whitecoats' angry faces and my friends' happy ones before I blacked out. Last thing I remember was being caught before I hit the ground, then everything died. Hopefully, I didn't.

I woke up to someone crying. The sound came from next to me somewhere - I was still too out of it to know where. I also heard whimpers and moans and some hushed talking. Curious, I opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was the side of a dog crate. Great! Just great! I went from being locked in a large room, to being locked in a dog crate. Marvelous. For a minute I just decided to lay there. I hurt all over, and I could feel where I'd lost blood - my clothes were caked with dried blood, as well as my skin.

Finally I sat up. And almost whacked my head on the roof. "Sammy!" Through my muddled thoughts, I recognized Rocket's voice. He sounded choked-up, like he'd been crying. I blinked rapidly, trying to get my vision back all the way. When it was clear enough, I noticed most of my friends across from me, also in cages. I could hear Whisk, Ride, and Tyler next to me. Rocket's young face was tear-stained and he looked all striped, like a zebra.

"Wha...?" I moaned, putting a hand to my head. It felt like I'd brained myself or something. My thoughts were still a little fuzzy also.

"You're awake," Canter tapped out, looking sad and pleased at the same time. I rose an eyebrow in confusion. I couldn't have been out that long...right? As if he was the one with mind-reading abilities and not Tie, Canter tapped, "You've been out for three days. The whitecoats were saying that if you didn't wake up today they'd dispose of you ASAP. Tyler, too, but he woke up yesterday." I groaned. I'd been locked in this cage for three days and had been about to be killed off while unconscious. Could they be any _more_ unfair to innocent kids?

Next to me I heard something grumbled about, "What the heck did he just say?" so I assumed that must be Tyler. He would be the only one out of the...eight...of us not to know what Canter was saying.

"He said, tap, tap, tap, tap," Tie said, before snickering.

"It's a good thing I'm not fully restored to full health, or close enough to you, because I would love to strangle you right now," I muttered. Ash snickered, and Tie looked frightened. For a little bit there wasn't any noise, other than someone moving or my occasional hissed-in breath when I moved part of me that was injured. There weren't any other experiments in the room, and there was a large window, I just noticed. Were they _trying_ to let us escape? Ash must have seen where I was looking, since she looked at the window, too, and grimaced.

"We're not able to get out that way - there's chicken wire in the window," she said, ruining my escape plan. I growled and slumped in my cage, having to refrain from yelling when my wing pressed against the back.

"Can't we just get out through the door?" Ride asked, making his voice sound like he thought Ash was the stupidest person in the world. Then again, that's most likely what he did think - I know him too well. Ash stuck out her tongue, and he snickered, but didn't say anything. I contemplated his idea, before sighing and shaking my head.

"Maybe one or two of us could get out of our cages, but through that door?" I snorted. "We'd have to have some Superkid with us." Everyone across from me turned to look at me. "What I'm saying is that falling from fourty feet after a bomb explosion and after you've just gotten your butt kicked by fifty Erasers and cat things leaves you kind of weak," I snarled. "So hopefully someone else shares my strength." No one answered that.

For the longest time, we just sat there thinking over our escape. Like mentioned before, the window was out since there was chicken wire imbedded in it, and the door was out, since frankly, I didn't have the strength to lift Rocket, let alone rip eight cage doors off as well as a no doubt heavy, metal door from its hinges, and beat the crap out of any Erasers or cat things we encounter. Normally, it might be a small problem, but now... You get my drift. Finally someone broke the silence.

"Why were they trying to kill you?" Whisk asked, sounding like a kitten again. Okay, so after about five years he was only one year old, but still. He wasn't a kitten.

"Major leadership flaws and mentality flaws," I said, mimicing the whitecoat who had come to seal our doom. "Apparently Tyler is just a 'disobedient' mistake." I made air quotes around disobedient. Tyler snorted next to me.

"Just because I wouldn't go back to the School doesn't mean I'm a mistake," he growled.

"No need trying to convince us, dude," I said simply. The others were quiet, listening to our back-and-forth. Ash was trying to hide a smirk, and the younger kids were just staring at the two of us as if we had suddenly misplaced our minds. Actually, now that I mention it, I don't remember if I had put mine back in after I woke up...four mornings ago? Before the big suicidal plan that made us all wind up here? Yeah, something like that.

"I know," Tyler sighed. Again it fell quiet. I could hear the screams of an experiment being dragged past our room and winced, covering my ears, hoping it would stop. When it died down I uncovered them, to find Tie smiling over something we didn't know about. No doubt someone's thoughts.

"That's brilliant, dude!" he suddenly exclaimed. We all looked at him, as if worried about _his_ sanity. "What? Am I not allowed to listen in to a perfect plan in someone's head?" he demanded. "Tell 'em, Ty!"

Tyler didn't answer straight away, and I looked at the left wall of my cage. Since it wouldn't be any different if I were looking ahead, I decided to look through the door again and stare off into space while I waited for him to answer. "God, you're like Ride acted when he didn't want to tell me he stole money," I sighed, relaxing as best as possible in my little prison.

"Okay, well, the first part might not be all that agreeable with everyone," Tyler said slowly. I gave a sigh of over exaggerated patience and he moved on. "Anyway, we first have to stay here for about...four days? Give or take?"

"What? Then we'd be in this hellhole for a whole week! Who knows what they could do in four days?" Ash and I said at the exact same time. Great minds think alike. I could imagine Tyler wincing at our outburst.

"It's just to give Sammy some time to rest up. Get all better again. Then we do the simple thing, bust all of our cage doors, break the large door, and escape. With eight of us, it should be a hell of a lot easier."

"Why not just kill us now?" Ride moaned. For once, I totally agreed with the annoying kid. Tyler growled but didn't answer. I could see Tie itching to say some sort of rebuttal, but I shook my head. Now was definitely not the time. He caught my message and bit his lip to keep from saying anything.

"This is going to be a long four days," Whisk sighed.

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**A/N: Okay, chapter three! I was contemplating them breaking out in this chapter, then I realized: what fun would that be? I mean, you could just as easily stretch their stay out and don't make everything go by so quickly. Anyway, I'm ranting. Again. Please review! Reviews make me bring these chapters up sooner. Thanks.**

**- Zach**


	4. Escape, Sweet Escape

**A/N: Ha, ha! And here we go - chapter four. I like this one. It was fun to write, actually, with their escape. Anyway, on with the story! And thanks to stargazer101 and D-Reezy42 for reviewing. (By the way, check out the link on my account - D-Reezy42 already has, and I'd like to thank them for that.)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Maximum Ride stuff, but I do own Sammy, Andy, Ride, Tie, Rocket, Canter, Whisk, and Tyler. You need my permission to use them.**

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The four days were the most boring and slowest of my life. The others were taken out from time to time for testing - apparently they were still "perfect" enough that the whitecoats didn't want to kill them - while Tyler and I were shot wary glances. I glared right back whenever a whitecoat glanced at me, and then they'd turn away hurriedly, as if my glare burned. 

Every night, most of my friends were silent, nursing injuries, probably thinking about when we were going to get out of here. Slowly I started to regain strength. It was weird, though - I was never this weak, and it never took this long for me to get my strength back. I thought that maybe the whitecoats had done something to me, given something to me, maybe, that made me weaker.

Eventually we reached the fourth day, and yet...I wasn't up for it yet. Sure, I had the power to break our cage doors and the room door - with luck - but anything else like that that we encountered, the others would have to go at alone. Any fight, I'd have to be the wuss and stay back, letting the others risk their lives for our freedom. It made me feel guilty and sick to my stomach thinking about it.

Ash and Whisk were looking at the door intently, listening for when the place cleared and we'd be safe to go. For the most part. Tie for once was subdued, his young face downcast, scratches on his cheeks like whiskers. Rocket had burn marks on his scales that hurt when I looked at them. Canter looked tense, ready to spring at anyone who crossed his path. He had bruises on one arm. Ride, from what I'd seen when he'd been brought back earlier, seemed the best-off out of the others. I didn't know what he or Tyler were doing right now.

"It's clear," Whisk hissed. Ash nodded in agreement. This is where my part came in. I first grabbed my cage door and pushed out. It flew out of the casing and landed in front of Canter's cage with a crash. I winced and Canter jumped, hitting his head on the roof. "We're trying to be stealthy, Sammy! Not bring all the Erasers in here!" Whisk snapped.

"I know, I know," I growled, crawling out of my now demolished cage. It felt good to stand up after a little under a week. I moved on to everyone else's cage doors, and when they were all out, I turned to the normal door. "Please let me be strong enough to budge _this_ door," I whispered to myself, before trying to throw it open - after trying the doorknob, of course, because if it was unlocked it would be so much easier - but it didn't budge. I swore under my breath, rubbing a bruised shoulder.

"What's wrong?" Rocket asked, sounding like a little kid again - normally he tried to sound braver and older than a four-year-old. I glanced at him, and then glared at the door.

"Stupid door," I said in response. He snickered. "Anyone see a way to unlock this door from the inside?" I asked, turning to the others.

"I know. Break the window there and let Whisk leave through that and then unlock it. He knows the key-password." I looked at Ash and gave her a and-you-didn't-tell-me-this-why look. She glared back. "We figured this door would be reinforced like the one in the arena a few days ago. So we came up with our own secondary plan."

"Fine, whatever," I sighed. I looked at everyone else. "Just...stand back. Glass is going to fly everywhere." They all back-tracked to the other side of the room. I ducked my head and covered it with one arm before punching out the window. Even though I had punched it out, I was still showered with broken glass. It scratched up my arm and I got a couple pieces scratching my back. My fist was bloody and filled with broken shards of glass, and man did it hurt. I moved my arm from my head and looked at the damange. The window was completely dead, and so was my hand. Both were covered in blood - my blood. I had to keep from yelling out in pain and just picked a couple larger pieces from my knuckles. By now the other seven had come up and most were giving me sympathetic glances.

"Go, Whisk," Ride said, lifting the cat through the broken window. Luckily Whisk wasn't cut up into little pieces. I saw him land lightly and look at something next to the door - no doubt the key pad. He jumped up, pointing, five times and pushed some of the buttons, before he jumped again and landed on the doorknob, opening it. We filed out silently. I wrapped my cut hand up in a scrap of fabric I tore from my shirt so that I could use it later, if need be.

"Let's go, and stay quiet!" I hissed. Tyler came up next to me and also seemed sorry that I had to just almost kill myself. I shrugged it off and he rolled his eyes at me. I gave him a glare in return then went to looking forward again in case I ran into something or got into trouble. Knowing me, that was bound to happen sooner or later. I would prefer it to be later, personally.

For a couple halls it was completely silent. I was getting lost in this building - I didn't know where the h-e-double toothpicks the computer room was. See, the first time we had been here, we had been in this side room that led off of the computer room. But now, as I mentioned eariler, we were further down than that. And I'm sorry, but like with the last problem of finding the building in the first place, the whitecoats didn't exactly give us the grand tour. Nah, they didn't think we'd need to know our way around this place.

All eight of us were on high-alert. Surely they should have been alerted to our escape! When Max and her flock saved us the first time, there had been Erasers there in an instant. But now...it was dead silent. Kind of creepy, if you ask me. Canter was jumpier than usual, so I'd rely on him, Ash, and Whisk to give us a heads-up to see if anyone was coming. We reached the end of yet another hallway and the three I just mentioned froze. I did so too and pressed my back against the wall, putting a finger up to my lips to tell the others to stay extra quiet.

Slowly, as to not draw attention to myself, I slid over to the end of the wall and peered around the corner. I drew my head back fast. There were a lot of Erasers milling around in the next long hallway, and in my quick glance, I had seen the stairway past them that no doubt led closer to the computer room and our escape in the sewer tunnels. I didn't realize I was breathing quickly and was just as jumpy as Canter until Ride put a hand on my shoulder and I jumped a couple inches off the ground. He looked at me curiously.

"Erasers," I signed. It's a good thing all of us know how to use and read sign-language. It's especially helpful when we come up with more secret plans than this. "About a hundred. Guarding stairs." Ride looked around me and paled. "Believe me?" I signed, making myself look irritated. You can't put emotions into sign-language. Ride just nodded.

I tapped the wall almost silently to get the other's attention. "Erasers - lots of them. Cat things, guys?" I signed quickly, looking from Canter, to Ash, down to Whisk, then back up to Tie. The first three shrugged, looking confused, but Tie seemed to be concentrating.

"Up the stairs - lots. Fifty at least," he signed back. I mentally groaned, since we couldn't just now. Then an idea came to my head and I smirked. "Sammy...I don't know if that's a good idea," Tie signed almost hesitantly. Everyone had seen and looked between him and me. Tyler just looked confused as if asking, "What the heck did he just say?"

"The walls are made of dry wall and plaster - easy to break through. Just have to find the wood and avoid that. We can get away from the Erasers, and possibly the cat-things too," I signed quickly. Tyler looked even more confused, so I pointed to me, then the wall and made a blowing up motion with my hands. The younger kids smothered giggles so that we weren't caught and Tyler looked like he was trying to figure out if he should tell me off for it or not. He decided against it finally.

"Go for it," Rocket signed, and Whisk nodded, since he was unable to use sign-language since he would have to balance on three paws, a trick he hadn't gotten down yet. He fell over every time he tried, and as that was amusing, it would give us away, since the younger three could never stay quiet after that.

I glanced back at the Erasers again, who looked bored, then at my team. "At five, I break, we run," I instructed. All of them nodded, even Tyler, who I assume got the message via mind from Tie. Even though he's the most annoying kid I've ever met, Tie's cool when he wants to be. Which, granted, isn't very often.

I held up my hand and started counting down from five. When I reached one I broke through the wall. "I heard something," one Eraser said loudly. We hurried through the now-demolished wall. It was way too small for an Eraser or cat thing to fit through, and we could barely fit through it. Well, Whisk and Rocket didn't have problems, but the rest of us did.

We found ourselves in what looked like a holding room. There was an observation window, no doubt with no one behind it, and a couple metal beds as well as monitors showing other rooms. This was probably the room where Tyler and I had been held. Well it was trashed now! I went to the left wall and forced my way through that. The Erasers had abandoned the hallway to try and come after us, and we raced up the stairs before their small minds could figure out we weren't in the room anymore. Or that they could have just used the door instead of sliding through the hole.

At the top of the stairs, like Tie said, there were about fifty cat things prowling around, all of them morphed. Fifty pairs of eyes stared at us, and fifty mouths curled into evil-looking smiles. Canter and Tie shuddered next to me, Rocket and Whisk hid, while Tyler, Ash, Ride, and I got ready to fight it out. And that we would have to do.

Whereas just a second ago time seemed to pause, it's like someone pressed 'play' on the big universal remote controlling our lives. The cat-things - who looked remarkably like leopards - pounced. Us older four struck at the same time, while the younger kids tried to hang back and handle as little as possible.

The whole fight lasted about fifteen minutes. The cat-things, which I now dub Leopards, because of how they look, were all out or had run off. Canter had been knocked unconscious. I picked him up and looked around. We were in the computer room again, surprisingly enough. And I knew the way to the sewers, but I let Tyler lead this time. I had an eight-year-old to look after, after all.

Surprisingly we got into the sewer without more incident and quickly left the smelly place, quicker than when Tyler and I had come. Sure, the rats helped again, and the others were freaked by that, but oh, well. They'd get over it - the stinking rats had helped Ty and me get there, and us get out. There was nothing to complain about.

Outside, the eight of us stood stupidly in the shadows so that no one noticed our abnormalties - namely Ash's and Rocket's - and looked at each other just as stupidly. "Um...where to we go now? They know where we lived before - we can't go back," Tie sighed. I nodded and set Canter down, rubbing blood from his forehead.

"I know. Tyler, do you know anywhere - you've been living somewhere around here, right?" I questioned. Tyler nodded and looked thoughtful. Now everyone was looking at him.

"I know a place we can go - it's someone that found out about the whitecoats and experiments. They sympathized with people like us, and have a kind of mutant orphanage, I guess you could call it. I stayed there for about a month when the Erasers were lying low. They're cool," he said.

"Alright, looks like we're going there," I said, giving one of my world-famous quick decisions. I lifted Canter up again and looked to Tyler to lead the way. He took off down the alley, staying in shadows so that we wouldn't be spotted by curious passers-by. Either this was my best or worst plan in three years - I was about to find out.

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**A/N: How'd you like it? I wanted to stretch the whole escape-thing out a bit, since what fun would it be to just have them leave normally? None, right? So, please review, and I'll get to chapter five really soon. Promise.**

**- Zach**


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